I bought a Portasol some years ago because I needed to make a mess of simple solder repairs withtou AC power around. The Portasol worked very nicely, given the amount of heat it made, and as long as you didn't try to use it in freezing weather or high wind.

Then I found the catalytic material in the tips wore out, way before I would have expected.

Tried a couple of new tips, same thing, they just don't last very long despite the best Ronson butane fuel sold for the tool.

So, has anyone had better experience with a better brand? Different tool? Apparently the Portasol is actually made overseas, and neither the maker nor the importer really gives a damn, they dont even answer email inquiries.

I still find soldering without AC very convenient and sometimes necessary, I'd just like a better tool to do the job with.

I bought an Ultratorch UT-100si a few years ago. It hasn't let me down in any of that time (other than not wanting to light on the first click of the igniter at 9000+ feet, but eventually it did go). Kind of pricey though:

As best I can tell, the Wellers are all flame torches that heat the underside of the tip. As are the SolderPro, which should take catalyst probles out of the mix I guess. If I went for Solderpro, I'd avoid the top models that use special fuel cells--one more thing that won't be in stock when you need it. Surely, Ronson's butane can't be all THAT contaminated?

Has anyone else got thoughts on whether I've just had a bad run of catalysts, or if catalytic tips like Portasol's are just, ah, a comment on irish engineering?

They tell us that leaded gasoline (tetraethyl lead) would ruin catalytic converters in cars--the lead contaminates the platinum in them. Could you have gotten a little solder splatter onto your iron's catalytic element? Just a thought....

Lead contamination, interesting concept. If it could go uphill, pass the filter screen, and dose the catalyst element well enough to ruin it...interesting concept but I'd hope to see a "use only with lead free solder" sticker on there if that applied. Lead is sprayed in engine exhaust, this would be a much less likely path.

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